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It would not be just, because Providence cannot be a something
reducing us to nothingness: to think of Providence as everything,
with no other thing in existence, is to annihilate the Universe;
such a providence could have no field of action; nothing would
exist except the Divine. As things are, the Divine, of course,
exists, but has reached forth to something other- not to reduce
that to nothingness but to preside over it; thus in the case of
Man, for instance, the Divine presides as the Providence,
preserving the character of human nature, that is the character
of a being under the providential law, which, again, implies
subjection to what that law may enjoin.
And that law enjoins that those who have made themselves good
shall know the best of life, here and later, the bad the reverse.
But the law does not warrant the wicked in expecting that their
prayers should bring others to sacrifice themselves for their
sakes; or that the gods should lay aside the divine life in order
to direct their daily concerns; or that good men, who have chosen
a path nobler than all earthly rule, should become their rulers.
The perverse have never made a single effort to bring the good
into authority, nor do they take any steps to improve themselves;
they are all spite against anyone that becomes good of his own
motion, though if good men were placed in authority the total of
goodness would be increased.
In sum: Man has come into existence, a living being but not a
member of the noblest order; he occupies by choice an
intermediate rank; still, in that place in which he exists,
Providence does not allow him to be reduced to nothing; on the
contrary he is ever being led upwards by all those varied devices
which the Divine employs in its labour to increase the dominance
of moral value. The human race, therefore, is not deprived by
Providence of its rational being; it retains its share, though
necessarily limited, in wisdom, intelligence, executive power and
right doing, the right doing, at least, of individuals to each
other- and even in wronging others people think they are doing
right and only paying what is due.
Man is, therefore, a noble creation, as perfect as the scheme
allows; a part, no doubt, in the fabric of the All, he yet holds
a lot higher than that of all the other living things of earth.
Now, no one of any intelligence complains of these others, man's
inferiors, which serve to the adornment of the world; it would be
feeble indeed to complain of animals biting man, as if we were to
pass our days asleep. No: the animal, too, exists of necessity,
and is serviceable in many ways, some obvious and many
progressively discovered- so that not one lives without profit to
itself and even to humanity. It is ridiculous, also, to complain
that many of them are dangerous- there are dangerous men abroad
as well- and if they distrust us, and in their distrust attack,
is that anything to wonder at?
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